The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Battle for Mortain (Aug. 7-12, 1944) - Aug 7th, 2003

http://www.coulthart.com/134/35chapter_5.htm ^

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks for the Typhoon profile. Like your tagline too. lol.

[w_over_w]

Don't worry about it, Snippy and I both read the entire thread so we see the posts whether we're pinged or not.

Roger that . . . it's a "protocol" thing with me.

[snippy_about_it]

Protocol..

I know what you mean, I hate when I forget someone on a ping. I need to slow down sometimes. ;)

[colorado tanker]

What you said about our soldiers, Snippy. Very true, indeed.

Last night I was listening to Phil Hendrie, being in a mood for sick humor. He found out a couple of fans were soldiers in the Iraq campaign who amused themselves doing Phil characters to each other in between engagements with the enemy. Reminded me of the Victor Davis Hanson description of our troops. I can just picture two young guys in sunglasses cracking each other up with impressions while getting their heavy weapons ready to rock and roll.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the pix and the reminder, Sam. Most of Iraq is pretty quiet, but there's still a war going on in the Sunni heartland, where Saddam's deadenders are still shooting at us.

From other news it sounds like the 4th I.D. has picked up the tempo in Tikrit and is capturing or killing those guys in good numbers. I saw on another thread a senior commander nicknamed "Rock" was just captured.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks colorado tanker, we not only produce great soldiers but I've always thought we have a great sense of humor in this country.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Howdy, all .. a shade late getting to the thread today, a busy morning here.

Seems like the most interesting threads always contain a website link that's fun to look at. Lots of cool pics of PzVI-E's today. I'm glad there weren't more of those around during the battle (the tanks, not the prints).

Have a great day!

[colorado tanker]

but I've always thought we have a great sense of humor in this country

Right, unlike the French who think Jerry Lewis is funny and the Germans who don't think anyone is funny.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL! Yeah, like that!

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Leave it to SAM to find good pics of tanks. He's a drooler when it comes to tanks!

[PsyOp]

Sgt. Robert Kinzer Reported Wounded
    Staff Sgt. Robert V. Kinzer, 22, was wounded in action on Oct. 23 in France, according to word received here by his parents…
   In a letter to his parents, which followed the war department's formal notification, Sgt. Kinzer indicated that he was in a hospital in France and expected to be returned to duty "in time." His wound was described as slight.
   In the infantry, Sergeant Kinzer has been in the Army for about two years and overseas since February 1943. A brother Lt. Cedric Kinzer is stationed at Camp Howie, Tex., and another brother, Ensign Russell Kinzer, was killed when the navy plane he was piloting collided in the air with another in Florida.

Kinzer Describes Joy Of Liberated French
    American soldiers going through a liberated French town would be mobbed by pretty French girls if they paused long enough to allow the girls to get at them.
    Thus wrote Staff Sgt. Robert B. Kinzer, now recuperating in a hospital in Italy after being wounded in France, to his sister, Mrs. Arthur Sandin Jr., in Los Angeles, Calif.
   Sergeant Kinzer suffered shrapnel wounds in his left leg. He has been awarded the Purple heart. His sister is the former Doris Kinzer of Bismarck.
   Sergeant Kinzer wrote: "You once asked me it I have been kissed by a French beauty. Yes, I have; and I also have received some of the best cheers that even a cheering section at a football game couldn't beat. When we first go through a liberated town, the French people are wild with happiness and joy, and if you stop, the girls would mob."
    He wrote that on one occasion he happened to be the first one to go into a hotel in a fairly large French village. All the Germans hadn't been eliminated yet so the Americans were on the alert.
   "Upon entering the hotel," Sgt. Kinzer wrote, I heard some noises come from the cellar, and I hollered for whoever was down there to come out. Two frightened faces appeared, and when I recognized them as French I told them I was an American. Upon hearing that word (American) they rushed forward, grabbing my hands and kissing them, and then began to cry. One was a middle-aged woman and the other an old lady.
   "Then a Frenchman came up and shook my hands vigorously and put his arms around me. Then all of a sudden they became very gay and brought up bread and wine, trying to make us all take it. There were 20 people down in that cellar, hiding from the Germans and our shells, and they tried to give us every bit of food they had. We didn't take any except one loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. When those two ladies first saw us they sobbed out French words which I knew were prayers to God, thanking Him for their deliverance from the Nazi yoke. I want you to remember this and what an ordeal they have been through."
   Mrs. Sandin's Husband, T/Sgt. Arthur Sandin, son of Mr. And Mrs. A. L. Sandin… is a prisoner of war in Germany. He is now in Stalag Luft 4, a German prison camp in northeastern Germany about 30 miles from the Baltic sea, after transfer there from another prison camp.
   In his letters to his wife, he has indicated that life is monotonous in the camp but that he finds some diversion reading and playing softball. He became a prisoner when the flying fortress on which he was a gunner and aerial engineer was shot down over Germany Mar. 16.

[PsyOp]

Ping to #51 on THIS thread. ;-]

[SAMWolf]

LOL! The french are a joke.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks once again for sharing about another great Uncle.

How soon the french forget. Saving their butts twice in one century is two times too many.

[PsyOp]

How soon the french forget.

I was thinking the same thing as I was typing the article. How far they have fallen. One has to wonder what those frenchmen who greeted my uncle as a liberator think today about the America bashing their country is engaging in.

[SAMWolf]

One thing's for sure, we can always count on the french to be there when they need us.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks PsyOp for sharing another family story.

[snippy_about_it]

Good Night SAM, Here is a song you might remember.
As I remember it, we were headed back up to the house when this was on the radio, that spot right through town before we would turn left and head up the winding hillside to your place. Pretty good, 'eh?

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy!

that spot right through town before we would turn left and head up the winding hillside to your place. Pretty good, 'eh?

I remember weaving all over the road as I "sang along" LOL!

[snippy_about_it]

I remember weaving all over the road as I "sang along" LOL!

I certainly had a good time "on the road" with you. Great driver, great tour guide and great company! Eight days of pure fun!!!